Washington (CNN) The Supreme Court will take up one of the most momentous cases of the term on Tuesday as it considers arguments from a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake to celebrate a same-sex couple’s marriage because he believes that God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman.

The case pits the religious liberty claims of Jack Phillips, who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop, against the couple, David Mullins and Charlie Craig, who say Phillips’ actions amount to discrimination.

Some spectators and place holders began waiting in line last Friday to secure one of the rare seats open to the public in the majestic court room.

LGBT rights advocates fear that if the Supreme Court ultimately sides with Phillips, it will diminish its landmark opinion from two years ago that cleared the way for same-sex marriage nationwide. Both sides agree that a ruling in favor of Phillips would also open the door to claims from others who engage in professional services — florists, for example — to claim that their religious liberty exempts them from public accommodation laws applicable to other businesses.

It was back in 1993 that Phillips opened the bakery, knowing at the outset that there would be certain cakes he would decline to make in order to abide by his religious beliefs. “I didn’t want to use my artistic talents to create something that went against my Christian faith,” he said in an interview, noting that he has also declined to make cakes to celebrate Halloween.

Flash forward to 2012, when same-sex marriage was not yet legal in Colorado, but two men walked into the bakery.

“The conversation was fairly short,” Philips remembered. “I went over and greeted them. We sat down at the desk where I had my wedding books open.”

The men told Phillips they wanted a cake to celebrate their planned wedding, which would be performed in another state. Phillips said he knew right away that he couldn’t create the product they were looking for without violating his faith.

“The Bible says, ‘In the beginning there was male and female,'” Phillips said. He offered to make any other baked goods for the men.

“At which point they both stormed out and left,” he said.

The couple filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which ruled in their favor, citing a state anti-discrimination law. Phillips took his case to the Colorado Court of Appeals, arguing that requiring him to provide a wedding cake for the couple violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech and free exercise of religion. The court held that the state anti-discrimination law was neutral and generally applicable and did not compel Masterpiece to “support or endorse any particular religious view.” It simply prohibited Phillips from discriminating against potential customers on account of their sexual orientation.

Phillips then took his case to the Supreme Court and the justices agreed to take it up after mulling it for several weeks.

In court papers, Kristen K. Waggoner, a lawyer from the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who is representing Phillips, argued that the First Amendment guarantees him the right to decline to make wedding cakes that celebrate marriages that are in conflict with his religious beliefs. She said that Phillips is protected by two parts of the First Amendment: its protections of religious exercise and free speech. While she argued that the free exercise clause forbids the commission from targeting Phillips “and like-minded believers for punishment,” she reserved the bulk of her brief for the free speech clause, perhaps targeting potential swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has at times shown an expansive view of free speech.

Waggoner argued that a person viewing one of Phillips’ custom wedding cakes — his “artistic expression” — would “understand that it celebrates and expresses support for the couple’s marriage.” She said the Supreme Court’s compelled speech doctrine “forbids the commission from demanding that artists design custom expression that conveys ideas they deem objectionable.”

In the interview, Phillips said, “I feel I’m being compelled to create artwork for an event — an inherently religious event — that goes against my faith, and I’m being compelled to do so under penalty of jail time and fines.”

Not surprisingly, Mullins and Craig see the case through an entirely different lens: discrimination.

“This case is about more than us, and it’s not about cakes,” Mullins said in an interview. “It’s about the right of gay people to receive equal service.”

“This isn’t about artistic expression,” said Craig. “I don’t feel like we asked for a piece of art, or for him to make a statement, we simply asked him for a cake, and he denied that to us simply because of who we are.”

The couple is being represented in court by the American Civil Liberties Union.

“In essence, the bakery seeks a constitutional right to hang a sign in its shop window proclaiming, ‘Wedding Cakes for Heterosexuals Only,'” the ACLU’s David D. Cole wrote in court briefs.

Cole said that whether a cake is an artistic expression is not at issue. “The question, rather, is whether the Constitution grants businesses open to the public the right to violate laws against discrimination in the commercial marketplace if the business happens to sell an artistic product.” The answer, Cole contends, is “no.”

Twenty other states and the District of Columbia likewise expressly prohibit places of public accommodation from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Trump administration sides with Phillips in the case, arguing that it falls “within the small set of applications of content-neutral laws that merit heightened scrutiny” from the courts. “A custom wedding cake is not an ordinary baked good; its function is more communicative and artistic than utilitarian,” Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued. “Accordingly, the government may not enact content-based laws commanding a speaker to engage in protected expression: An artist cannot be forced to paint, a musician cannot be forced to play, and a poet cannot be forced to write.”

But the government lawyers did draw a line when it comes to race, arguing that laws targeting race-based discrimination may survive heightened First Amendment scrutiny in part because racial bias “is a familiar and recurring evil that poses unique historical, constitutional and institutional concerns.”

Red Cross Demands Branches Remove Crucifixes to Be More Secular

Volunteers have criticised the Red Cross charity after receiving a communication telling them to remove crucifixes from the walls of their branches as the organisation looks to become more secular.

The Belgian branches of the international aid organisation received an email from the Provincial Committee of the Red Cross in Liège to remove all crucifixes. André Rouffart, president of the Red Cross in Verviers, said: “We were asked to respect the principles of the Red Cross”, and not to distinguish between race or religious belief 7sur7 reports.

Mr. Rouffart said there had been pushback from volunteers and other members on the issue but downplayed the issue, saying: “I think it’s a storm in a teacup.”

Several volunteers spoke to Belgian broadcaster RTL and expressed hostility to the move, with one saying: “Let things remain as they are. We used to say ‘Christmas holidays’, now it’s ‘winter holidays’. The Christmas market in Brussels has become the ‘Winter Pleasures’.”

“For a certain part of the population — because of the Muslims — the crosses were removed in the Red Cross houses and, more particularly, in that of Verviers,” the volunteer added.

The order follows the proposed removal of a cross in France which was located above a statue of Saint John Paul II in Ploërmel, Brittany. The move sparked outrage among many and led to the Polish and Hungarian government offering to take the cross.

“Such measures must be regarded as attempts to do away with the continent’s civilisation and culture,” commented Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó.

In Ireland, Catholic priest Father Desmond O’Donnell has called on Christians to abandon the word ‘Christmas’ entirely, saying that the commercialisation of the holiday had replaced the original Christian meaning.

While old Christmas traditions being replaced, others have emerged — including anti-terror barriers wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and bright red bows in the city of Bochum, Germany, to prevent radical Islamic terror attacks like the Berlin Christmas market massacre of December 2016.

What about the Christians? What about nurturing them? Bathhouse Barry only cares about GFPs

Obama: Muslims Must Be “Cherished And Nurtured”…

NEW DELHI: India needs to “cherish and nurture” its Muslim population, which is integrated and considers itself Indian, former US president Barack Obama has said. It is an idea that needs to be reinforced, he emphasised at an event of a media organisation in New Delhi on Friday.

Obama touched on a host of topics, including his relationship with Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh during his address and the question-answer session. Obama said he emphasised the need for religious tolerance and the right to practice one’s own faith during closed door talks with PM Modi during his last trip to India in 2015.

Responding to questions, Obama said his comments then were general in nature and he had repeated it in the US as well as in Europe. “There’s a counter narrative taking place, at all times, but it’s particularly pronounced now…

You are seeing it in Europe, you are seeing it in the United States and sometimes you see it in India where those old tribal impulses reassert themselves under leaders who try to push back those impulses and under leaders who try to exploit them,” Obama said.

Replying to a question, Obama spoke of India’s “enormous Muslim population”, which is successful, integrated and thinks of itself as Indian. That is unfortunately not always the case in some other countries, Obama added.

Referring to India, he said, “And that is something that needs to be cherished and nurtured, cultivated. It’s important to continue reinforcing it.” To a separate question, he said Modi’s “impulse” was to recognise the importance of Indian unity. “I think he firmly believes the need for that in order to advance to the great nation status,” Obama said.

LONDON — A prominent Anglican cleric and gay rights campaigner known for contentious gestures has urged believers to pray for Prince George — age 4, and third in line to the throne — to find the love “of a fine young gentleman” when he grows up so as to advance the cause of same-sex marriage in church.

Coming just days after Prince Harry — George’s uncle, and fifth in line — announced his engagement to Meghan Markle, a divorced American actress, the suggestion by the Very Rev. Kelvin Holdsworth seemed to illuminate once more the role of royal romance in Britain’s imagination and conversation, especially when it collides with tradition.

Prince Harry and Ms. Markle have said they will marry in May at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, west of London. But it is only since 2002 that the Church of England has permitted church marriages for divorced people, “in exceptional circumstances” at the discretion of parish priests. The church teaching is that marriage is for life.

While same-sex marriage is permitted by law in most of Britain, the Church of England says on its website, “it remains the case that it is not legally possible for same-sex couples to marry” in its churches.

Mr. Holdsworth, the provost of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, belongs to the Scottish Episcopal Church, a separate province of the Anglican Communion that voted in June to let its priests solemnize same-sex marriages.

His suggestion was widely reported in the British media on Friday, though the blog on which he made it seemed inaccessible Friday morning.

Mr. Holdsworth caused a frisson among some of the faithful in January when he permitted a reading from the Quran during a service that included a rebuttal of the Christian belief that Jesus was the son of God.

His latest comments also drew the outrage of more traditional clerics. The Rev. Gavin Ashenden, a former royal chaplain, called the comments unchristian.

“To pray for Prince George to grow up in that way” is to “pray in a way that would disable and undermine his constitutional and personal role,” he told Christian Today, an online news provider, particularly when part of the expectation that the prince would inherit would be “to produce a biological heir with a woman he loves.”

“It is an unkind and destabilizing prayer,” Mr. Ashenden continued. “It is the theological equivalent of the curse of the wicked fairy in one of the fairy tales.”

There was no immediate comment from the royal family. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle arrived in Nottingham, England, on Friday for their first official visit together — to raise awareness of H.I.V./AIDS and youth violence.

In his campaign to expand on that change, Mr. Holdsworth wrote in a blog post on Thursday that believers could “pray in the privacy of their hearts (or in public if they dare) for the Lord to bless Prince George with a love, when he grows up, of a fine young gentleman.” Prince George is the elder child of Prince William and the former Catherine Middleton, now called the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

“A royal wedding might sort things out remarkably easily, though we might have to wait 25 years for that to happen,” Mr. Holdsworth wrote. “Who knows whether that might be sooner than things might work out by other means.”

A second transgender student is fighting for locker room access at the same suburban school district where a lengthy and historic battle over transgender rights set national precedence a few years ago.

Eighteen-year-old Nova Maday filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday claiming that Palatine-based Township High School District 211 has in the past denied her use of the girls’ locker room during physical education class, hurting her grade as well as her mental health.

More recently, the district allowed the Palatine High School senior to change in facilities matching her gender identity but only if she agreed to dress in an “unspecified private changing area within the locker room,” which the lawsuit says is not required of other students.

District 211 Superintendent Dan Cates, in a prepared statement released later Thursday, said the “allegations in the lawsuit misrepresent the accommodations extended to this student and District 211’s approach to working with and supporting transgender students.”

But the suit contends the district has treated Maday differently than other female students, which it asserts is in violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act.

“I just want to be treated like every other girl in our school,” Maday said in a written statement.

The lawsuit says Maday has presented as female since October 2014, consistently dressing as a girl and using a female name and pronouns.

“Nova’s ability to live as a girl in all aspects of her life has been essential for treating her gender dysphoria,” says the lawsuit, which was filed on the student’s behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the Chicago law firm Mandell Menkes LLC. “Before treatment, Nova had severe depression. Since her treatment began, Nova’s depression has improved, her grades have gotten better in all of her classes besides P.E., and she has become more social.”

School officials had required her to change in a nurse’s office or in a separate locked, single-user locker room that had to be opened by faculty, making her repeatedly late for class, according to the lawsuit. While she would prefer to take physical education with her peers, Maday had agreed to take a waiver.

“Under the District’s policy … Nova must be conspicuously separated from her fellow students and singled out for differential treatment by being required to dress separately from them, either in a separate facility or in a separate area within the locker room,” the lawsuit says. “The District’s actions signal to Nova that she is not really a girl and should feel ashamed of who she is and about her body, in particular.”

The northwest suburban district had made national headlines when another transgender student — identified publicly as Student A — filed a complaint with federal authorities in 2013 seeking access to the girls’ locker room. An investigation by federal education officials found the district violated federal law, the first time a school was found to be in conflict with Title IX based on gender identity.

Administrators agreed to give Student A access to the girls’ locker room while installing privacy walls, but a group of parents who opposed such accommodations then sued the district and federal government in federal court, arguing that this violated the constitutional right to privacy and created a hostile environment for other students. That lawsuit is ongoing.

In response to Maday’s lawsuit, a spokeswoman for that group of parents said students should be separated by biological sex and that an “open-air locker room” is not a solution.

“The student is a biological male, and we separate these students by biology and anatomy for good reason,” said Vicki Wilson of D211 Parents for Privacy. “Schools have a duty to protect the well-being and dignity of all students.”

Maday’s mother had previously asked school officials if accommodations for Student A would apply to Maday as well. A school official told the mother that “the settlement only applied to Student A and would not extend to any other student in the district,” according to the lawsuit.

The superintendent’s statement Thursday, however, said district “has provided caring and responsive supports for transgender students for years, including multiple transgender students who daily use bathrooms and locker rooms of their gender identity in multiple schools.

“Every transgender student in District 211 who has requested use of the locker room of their identified gender has been offered such access, along with other supports within an individual support plan,” the statement said.

“We will vigorously defend and protect compassionate, fair and equitable support for all students, and, at the same time, we continue to defend our supports for transgender students at the federal level,” Cates added.

Despite this, Maday’s lawsuit is asking for the court to order District 211 to allow all students access to facilities matching their gender identity, as well as damages for emotional distress and loss suffered by Maday.

Palatine has become one of the main battlegrounds for transgender rights in schools amid a larger, ongoing fight for access based on gender identity nationwide.

In 2016, a directive from then-President Barack Obama’s administration declared that schools must accommodate transgender students, including allowing access to locker rooms or other facilities based on gender identity. But in February the Trump administration rolled back those protections, saying decisions on access were best made at a local level.